traffic snarl-ups in Oxford city centre have been blamed on resurfacing work in Magdalen Street.

The work carried out by Oxfordshire County Council began on Sunday and is expected to last three to four days.

It has meant buses which normally go up Magdalen Street are having to take a different route via Beaumont Street where they have been stopping to pick up passengers. Yesterday morning, there were tailbacks from the Oxford Station junction all the way up to St Giles.

Alan Cockbill, senior engineer in the city council's traffic and design department, said: "The system was never going to cope. Unfortunately, we were going to have problems with this resurfacing being done in Magdalen Street. We are looking at whether we can tweak the traffic signals to improve it - but it's always a difficult operation.

"The buses that would normally go via Magdalen Street, George Street and Magdalen Street West are going to have to go via Beaumont Street, Worcester Street and Hythe Bridge Street into Park End Street."